When life gives you lemons, piss on life and burn the tree or so I thought at this moment. I secretly prayed Lucifer would save me if anything went wrong as I delved into the very core of my soul and took in all the vast law energy I'd been holding back.
I didn't add it to my soul force or some other nonsense, no, I compressed it all into a from I knew all to well, every law I'd touched upon came flooding in as I turned them all into a single seed. It flowed with power for a moment as all it's structure started to collapse as it was about to hit critical mass.
Lucifer, as I'd on cue snort as he appeared. "You're missing something and you might want to think on it quick."
I sweat dropped and cursed him in my head before feeling it click. The seed wasn't meant to just be housed in my soul, it was supposed to apart of it! I quickly integrated my soul into the seed like rope tethers holding it together and stable.
When I'd finished Lucifer snorted. "Passable at best."
I grunted. "Any better idea then?"
He looked frustrated now, a look I'd not seen on him, but one I understood. I looked back to the seed and thought for a good deal of time before trying something. I moved my soul into the seed fully. My soul realm connected with it and became it's sky while my soul itself became the core of the seed, it's driving life force.
When I finished and saw what remain of the very core of my being, I panted and looked to Lucifer who looked both fascinated and proud. I didn't have the energy, mental or otherwise to speak as I passed out, no longer just a mental avatar, but a dreamless sleep of sorts.
I must've been out a great deal of time because when I came to, Yang Xin looked worried. I asked her. "How long have I been out?"
She sighed. "A week. Any longer and I'd have been forced to alert the president of the association."
I sighed and sat up feeling drained. Even with the necklace that was constantly nourishing my soul realm, little good that it helped now, I felt depleted. Grabbing a hand full of pills I crushed them all and refilled my soul force.
There inside my soul realm next to my demon beasts was a seedling, little bigger than a branch yet limp like a vine. I could feel every part of it as if it was my soul, which in a way it was. If my thoughts were correct on the matter, Nie Li was fucked if he grew someone else's soul in his own soul realm.
It was literally like volunteered possession while feeding and nurturing the soul with your own and I gotta say, fuck that! When I was back at top strength again I stood up and headed to wash up before telling Yang Xin to speed up production on the oils and bamboo weapons.
Those, along with the demon spirit blood burst bottles I just gave her the information on how to make and what they do, would see to it that they were prepared for the coming war for sure.
She got to work immediately calling others to teach how to make them and warning them to be extremely careful as they exploded and would kill all under gold rank and even injure gold ranks.
I left her to it and searched out Nie Li's soul force. I found the general direction of where he was and headed there at full speed while cloaked in the void of my shadow devil. I arrived at the school and entered the genius class with everyone else.
There I saw Chen Linjian, now a five star silver rank himself and almost to gold rank, talking to Nie Li. When they noticed me, I walked over and said my hellos. After a minute Nie Li asked if I were interested in exploring a mysterious place with him.
I agreed and we took off then and there. He was stopped by an upstart noble kid with a golden land wyvern, but after kicking the shit out of him, we left.
He gathered the group he wished to take with us, mostly his friends and Xiao Ning'er. When we arrived at the entrance to the prison realm the idiot of the group, Lu Piao, mentioned trying to take an ax to the entrance a few years back.
When Nie Li snorted saying it would take several peak legend ranks working together to break in I chuckled. "I could do it given enough time."
Nie Li nodded. "Yeah, well you're a unique case."
I had to give him that. The others looked to me and I pulled out my now modified vibro swords I'd turned into soul weapons. They resides inside my soul realm with my demon spirits when I wasn't using them, but they flowed with a black luster that promised death.
Nie Li looked at them and asked. "How did you find soul weapons?"
I shook my head. "I didn't find them, I made them. Or more accurately I turned them into soul weapons."
His eyes went wide and I smirked. "I took a trip to the Heavenly Marks family a few months back as I'm sure you're aware and I saw the soul weapons in your family vault. They weren't suitable for me, but my unique eyes allow me to see the truth of something's and I saw what made them soul weapons. Being an inscription master, I modified my own swords to match the soul array inside the ones inside your family vault, with a few modifications of course."
He was stunned silly for a moment before asking. "Can you show me? Or make more?"
I shrugged and told him. "You'll have to understand the law of souls before you can utilize it but I can give you the knowledge of how once you've grasped that law. As for making more? I've made plenty to practice with. Most I have to the alchemist association and the deivine family but I've a few swords and axes on me."
I pulled them out in a pile to which he snatched them up like candies before giving on to each of his friends and telling them how to use them. I went ahead and showed him the inscription needed to turn a weapon into a soul weapon.
After that a loud girl showed up declaring herself Lu Piao's fiancé. I watched in amusement as Nie Li handled the situation and unlocked the prison realm. When we came across some scarlet ghosts, I mentioned blood burst bottles might be the way to go and Nie Li took it in earnest, killing them in waves of explosions as he tossed the bottles of demon beast blood with explosive inscriptions on them.
While they killed plenty and found a few pieces of blood crystals. Nie Li insisted they were good things to the others but I simply got bored. I waved a hand as hundreds of thousands of scarlet ghosts floated in the air from my soul power before I crushed them all into paste.
A couple hundred blood crystals fell out as they separated before I turned that paste into a gigantic ball of flesh and blood and tossed it at the Netherlamp Behemoth demon beast in the distance. It swallowed them in a massive gulp as it became full almost instantly.
I'd officially wiped out most of the scarlet ghosts in this section of the prison realm. There were millions more ahead to be sure, but most were hiding after hearing so many of their own die in agony while my aura had spread out.
We made our way to the Netherlamp Behemoth while it was dozing off and passed it up. When they got a good look at the many tongued beast as we went by and just as we entered the mouth of the cave leading deeper in, a beast many times the size of the Netherlamp Behemoth sent out an aura that made me feel a little pressure.
It was a legend rank nightmare type demon beast, a florescent hydra if Nie Li's memories were to be taken seriously. He looked to me and I shook my head. "I'm not fighting that thing, not unless I have to. You know as well as I that they're damn near impossible to kill."
He sighed and agreed before leading the way. When he found the monument of Kong Ming, I told him. "I've some business to take care of, you go play."
He gave me a funny look and I shook my head. "Nothing too serious."
I disappeared before his eyes and appeared before a boy in chains, recently beaten. He looked up at me and I smiled. "What would you give for revenge upon those who did this to you?"
He, without question replied. "Everything!"
I nodded. "Then you will be my follower, my right hand. And in return I'll give you the power to do just that."
I took out the special acupuncture needles I had prepared special for him. I slid them in while putting a barrier around us. "This will be painful beyond your imagination, bear with it and you'll grow in strength rapidly."
His screams amused Lucifer who watched from the corner. I exited the barrier and asked him. "Care to toss a notice me not barrier around him? I've other business else where and I don't want them finding him before he's ready."
Lucifer snorted. "They won't find him so long as he screams so good."
I gave him a droll stare before moving faster than most legend ranks could possibly move and headed to the slave mines where they harvested blood crystals. I slipped inside the mine and dug it all up, putting it in my ring before leaving and destroying the slave control tower with a flick of my finger.
The slaves, now freed, revolted, killing all the guards. I went to the divine flames territory next, after doing an aerial search of most of the prison realm territories. There I stole the set of daggers and inscription scrolls, leaving a mountain of pill bottles in their place and set up a stall, trading dragon crystals for food.
The families and poor people had plenty of dragon crystals as they were found all over their territory. I wasn't stingy and gave food freely as I'd kept the demon beast bodies I'd killed on my hunts. It got to the point where they began fighting over who traded with me.
Getting bored I simply took all their dragon crystals and dumped a mountain of demon beast bodies and rice on them. After that I headed to a small poor family selling a unique blizzard pearl and traded my finest foods with them, in quantity, inside a space ring.
The old man was so happy to do the trade he actually had the little ones now and call me benefactor. I moved and left the place when I felt the old man, a clearly martial ancestor or stronger expert, come into town.
I fled far and fast and thank the goddess he didn't follow. I arrived back at the still screaming Duan Jian and Lucifer's side. Lucifer commented. "You caused a lot of ruckus and chaos. Many are dying and being slaughtered, I'm so proud."
I rolled my eyes. "Many more will be dying soon enough. For now though, I've to try and form my first fate soul. I know it's possible just very difficult."
He smirked. "You've no idea. But then again, I guess you do. Good luck kid."
I ignored him and went into meditation just outside the barrier surrounding Duan Jian. I set a mountain of pills, blood crystals and dragon crystals beside me as I began absorbing them all at once. The vine, greedy bastard that it was, took it all in as I had to expend more and more resources until I'd nearly ran out of pills!
It finally grew into small tree. Next I began absorbing demon beast souls as my demon spirits ate them at my command. Faster and faster they are as slowly they went from bronze rank beasts to silver, gold, black gold and stopping just before legend rank, they wanted something more and I sighed, taking out the hand full of legend rank demon spirits I let them feast.
In this time Nie Li had his own vine sprout and had run into the silver winged family's little princess. The same silver winged family that had been torturing Duan Jian for years now.
They'd made their way here where they were introduced to the patriarch, a legend rank fighter. Nie Li had clearly noticed me in passing even hidden while I worked on strengthening my demon spirits. He had his own ways about it and I let it be.
The silver winged family just got news that the slaves had revolted and killed most of the guards before escaping while the blood crystal mine was reportedly empty now. When Nie Li passed me by I slipped a ring full of blood crystals onto his finger, still invisible to the others.
If he didn't have a shadow demon spirit, I've no doubt he'd not have been able to see me. Lucifer watched, amusedly by my workings. I'd leafy the blizzard pearl in with the legend rank inscription scrolls id given him. As it was, I wasn't about to give him the attribute-less daggers.
I could use them myself and I was powerful enough to fully utilize them. I'd given him some dragon crystals as well to keep him sorted and off my case. He could figure out the rest himself. After a few days Duan Jian woke up and snapped his chains, roaring and shaking the barrier I'd put up around him.
Physically he was around peak five star black gold rank while his soul realm wasn't much more than bronze rank. I grabbed him and disappeared while the barrier broke and Lucifer laughed. We appeared near the entrance to the black flames family town.
I grabbed a room at the local inn and gave him a ring with the black flames sword and the last of my pills. I gave him the primal dragon technique, a combination of the lightning dragon technique and the holy primal chaos technique I'd modified to fit him personally.
It was a fast technique meant solely for those with dragon blood in their veins. With his black wings and the sheer strength of his body he'd be a perfect match. After giving him a ton of blood and dragon crystals and showing him how to use them, I told him to stay put and practice until I came back.
I went to Nie Li's side and told the group as they were practicing. You won't want to be here soon. I'm going to make explosive inscriptions all over their territory and kill a few people for the light rocks we need to get out of this realm."
Nie Li nodded and stood up. "We'll sneak out when you're done."
I shrugged and went invisible before placing explosive inscriptions everywhere. The only places I didn't put them were near the innocent slaves. When I appeared next to Nie Li again I gave him the directions and the full map of this realm before snapping my fingers and sending most of the silver winged territory up in flames.
Hundreds died as more screamed in agony. Most were guards and those high up in the silver winged family. I did steal a few rings from the dead that had light stones on the way out and covered Nie Li's escape.
When they were safely on their way now, I went to get Duan Jian. When he saw me he kneeled and called me master. As cute as that was, I shook my head. "You kneel before no man now. You are my right hand, my sword of vengeance. A sword does not kneel."
I took his black flames sword and inscribed a soul array before instructing him how to use it. I then took him to meet up with Nie Li's group. When they saw us Nie Li asked. "Whose he?"
I smirked. "His name is Sasuke Uchiha-"
I saw their believing looks and snorted. "I mean Duan Jian. He's my right hand and loyal follower. I intend to raise his power to match my own soon enough."
Nie Li shrugged. "Whatever. Did you get the light stones?"
I tossed him the ring and let him do his work. Just as we were about to leave the old man appeared. "No beginning can have no end, marvelous marvelous!"
I chuckled. "It's a circle, the ouroboros, a symbol of eternity."
The old man nodded. "Indeed, though I don't know what an ouroboros is."
I shrugged. "Imagine a snake swallowing it's own tail."
He must've had a spark of enlightenment because he vanished after that. Du Ze and the rest looked confused before asking. "What were you two saying?"
I shrugged. "Not important right now."
Nie Li gave me a look that said we needed to talk but I just shrugged and followed them out. We broke apart as he and the rest went to the city lord's mansion while I took Duan Jian to the alchemist association. I set him up in a room next to mine and Yang Xin's with her help and gave him a new ring full of pills he could use to cultivate.
I split the resources I had, mostly dragon and blood crystals into three. A third went to the alchemist association warriors, a third to the divine family as one last thanks and the last I split in half between Duan Jian and myself.
I refilled my stock of pills and began making more god growth rate demon spirits for Yang Xin and glory city's future. A couple days later the demon beast horde was announced. Though this time the alchemist association was over prepared by a shit ton.
The demon beast horde was reported to only have black gold rank demon beasts as it's strongest and number in the millions. I warned Yang Xin off showing her real strength as a legend rank and she agreed only in the case of an emergency would she do so.
The alchemist association was already planting bombs and digging ditches for the oil. Nie Li suggested another ditch to prevent the demon beasts from going around the city walls and Yang Xin agreed. All of the warriors dug and prepared like their lives depended on it, because well, they did.
I took a walk and checked out the killing array Nie Li had built while I was knocked out and asked him for the book. He gave it to me and when I read it I tossed it back to him. "It's decent but it would've been better if you'd asked me for the pot. Then you could've used all god growth rate demon spirits that would only grow stronger the more they kill."
He was stunned by my words as I left him there looking at the array with a complicated look. I headed to the city wall and waited for the show when they were as finished as they possibly could be, the warriors returned.
Thousands of gallons of oil was dumped into barrels and ditches waiting to explode into fire. The ballista had blood burst bottles tied to the javelins and ready to go while the walls had massive piles of bamboo with medicine that would sent the demon beasts wild inside, stacked beside them.
When the horde was in sight and everyone was inside the walls, the tension got real. The demon beast horde charged at the roads of the black gold rank beasts. It was a slaughter fest of epic proportions as every few feet thousand of demon beasts died from massive explosions.
The city lord gave credit to Nie Li and the alchemist association as I'd opted not to be mentioned. The black gold rank beasts roared and sent in the bronze and silver ranks to clear the way. That was a complete failure on their part as those million or so demon beasts never made it to the walls.
They died screaming, exploding and bursting into flames and occasionally going mad as bamboo was thrown and the ballista fired. Chain reactions of explosions went off at regular intervals that saw to the deaths of more than a hundred thousand gold rank demon beasts as well.
When the black gold rank demon beasts threw rocks, those of us pretending to be black gold rank joined the rest of the actual black gold ranks and destroyed those rocks before they could touch the city walls. The black gold rank beasts roared, having enough of it they charged next with the rest of the horde of millions.
Chain reactions of massive explosions and walls of fire saw to the deaths of more demon beasts while I made myself invisible with my shadow devil demon spirit and slaughtered most of the black gold rank beasts leading the charge amongst the explosions.
No ones saw that coming and without black gold ranks, the millions of demon beast kept charging as they were ordered to. They'd simply lost sight of their leaders is all. In reality they were all stored in my ring, dead now.
Even the great snow ape was killed without a sound amidst a particularly violent explosion that covered everyone from seeing what happened. The millions of dean in beasts eventually made it to the walls only to be burned to death from the oil they poured over the walls.
It was rather amusing to see but I was more focused on feeding my demon spirits the souls of the millions of beasts that had just died. When they breached the boundary of peak five star legend rank and went a bit out of control I instructed my vine to bind them and feed them more laws. Both demon spirits curled up and obeyed after that.
The vine bound them to my will absolutely now. No matter how strong they become they would obey me. It's one of the perks of the vine actually being my own. I felt a shifting change as I pulled in and crushed the rest of the millions of demon spirits and entered a state of enlightenment.
A vibrating feeling shook my core as the world's laws tried to stop what was coming and failed. My vine absorbed all the soul force and slowly it budded into a small flowering tree before one of the flowers opened and revealed a blue heavenly fate soul.
I'd finally broken through and- oh god, I need souls force fast! I emptied my ring of dragon and blood crystals and all the pills I had, using them all up as the fate soul grew brighter and finished it's growth. I sweat dropped as the damn thing had nearly drained me dry!
Standing I left the massacre field after giving Nie Li an in with the city lord in the form of the snow ape's soul that had unlocked it's spirit wisdom and headed to the alchemist association. There I met with Yang Xin and later Nie Li, who was apparently staying the night as his girlfriend had kicked him out. I left him be as I relaxed in meditation to solidify my powers.
I synched my vibro soul swords up and they thrummed with power. I asked Ye Yan, the founder, to search for the dark guild from above and use the sacred family as a starting point. He'd begun mastering the technique and law of souls I'd introduced him to so his power alone had sky rocketed to peak five star legend rank.
He'd have no problem finding them I'm sure. That night the city lord was attacked and people were sent to get Nie Li as the city lord was apparently dying or so they thought. I ignored it all as it held no interest to me at all.
Nie Li had made his way into gold rank from absorbing the demon beast spirits like I had so he could easily fix the problem himself. He took off to help while I pulled Yang Xin to bed saying. "They'll be fine. My junior brother is as talented as I am in the arts of medicine and healing. He just doesn't like to show off."
That night I took the opportunity to test the limits of a female legend rank's body. Man the next few days were fun. We'd been forced to stop only because her work demanded it and the city lord was getting pissy from Nie Li just revealing that I'm a legend rank to him.
They asked that I attend some banquet or other with Yang Xin to meet the other families. I sent Duan Jian to be Nie Li's body guard and told him to protect Nie Li even if it meant doing so violently. Nie Li was happy to receive the attention and as Duan Jian had repeatedly received my help, he was now a peak one star legend rank body while his souls force was at the peak of five star black gold rank.
It wasn't long before he too would be a legend rank, though I'm considered a heavenly fate realm now anyway. I'd already made a black infernal dragon demon spirit with a bit of real dragon bloodline mixed in a god growth rate demon spirit for him. He'd integrated with it all his own at the beginning of black gold rank and it had brought him straight to the peak of five star black gold rank while his body went to the peak of one star legend rank.
The rest as we say, is history. He kept his sword equally as powerful so that he was always at his strongest. While we waited around a while the sacred family sent people to test Duan Jian who followed Nie Li around. He thrashed those that were sent and bitch slapped the sacred family patriarch's sister to the ground.
He went to beat her some more but the patriarch moved and stopped him, only barely, with Nie Li's order to let her go for now.
During the banquet the city lord himself failed to attend, Nie Li represented the city lord in his place. The sacred family of course got upset but that was nothing new until the dark guild members and some sacred family members were brought out and all announced to be dark guild members.
The patriarch of the sacred family did a few hand seals and they died of course, after saying he wouldn't allow his own people to be killed like that. More were brought out repeatedly and did enough seals to let every really paying attention and those few not, know that he was the one killing them.
It was a bit hilarious until he snorted saying they had no proof before declaring the sacred family would be leaving. Almost immediately the guards stopped them while the Chen Zhenlong, the divine family head declared his people would stop any that tried to leave.
The alchemist association did the same with Yang Xin declaring it right beside me. Surprisingly to others, there were dozens of black gold rank experts and three legend ranks that made their presence known. Those three being Yang Xin, Chen Zhenlong which actually did surprise me and Chen Ming, one of the Divine family elders I'd helped.
The patriarch of the sacred family paled and told his people to kill their way out of they had to. As amusing as the tussle was, the sacred family was nearly eradicated on their way out. They used a shadow devil technique, not to be confused with the shadow devil demon beast, this was actually just a technique that used some of the beasts original moves to kill and summon an avatar of one.
It was strictly a dark guild technique that while powerful, Yang Xin immediately destroyed, killing the elders who summoned it. The other two legend ranks moved on Shen Hong and beat him black and blue. When they were about to kill him, Gui Sha, the dark guild enforcement elder showed up.
I gave Yang Xin the order and she killed all the black gold rank sacred family elders there in an instant. Gui Sha's face went as ugly as Shen Hong's. He turned his attention to only saving Shen Hong then and used talismans to suppress the two legend rank divine family members.
Yang Xin joined them but she was just as new to being a legend rank as they were. She barely managed to keep them from being totally suppressed until Ye Zong arrived to help out.
In that moment of sheer desperation, he too stepped into legend rank. They fought four on one now and overwhelmed the artifacts Gui Sha was using to pose as a legend rank expert. When he tried to take Shen Hong and flee, I gave Duan Jian the signal and he attacked Shen Hong.
They tussled, preventing Gui Sha from taking him and running. After a bit the ten thousand demon beast array Nie Li had built, came alive. The legend ranks backed up as he locked the space down preventing Gui Sha from fleeing at all and hitting him with ten percent of the array's power.
Long Sha, the second in command of the dark guild next to the demon lord, appeared to save him after the blow. Ye Zong killed the fleeing Shen Hong while they weren't paying attention, ending the last of the sacred family from Glory city.
Long Sha frowned and shared a few words with Nie Li before exchanging a blow with the array at full power. He was devastated but alive. He and Gui Sha left when Nie Li said to let them go or risk the demon lord coming sooner rather than later.
I was completely amused by this and clapped at their bravado. They were all clearly stressed out as they looked to me wearily. I chuckled. "Relax people, you've fended off the dark guild and if what they said means anything, I can safely say the demon lord is weaker than I am right now. At best he would complete his closed door cultivation and equal me in strength."
I covered glory city in my aura as a heavenly fate realm and killed off the rest of the known dark guild members hiding in it. The rest of the population didn't even feel my presence unless they were black gold rank and above.
The city lord and Chen Zhenlong asked. "How strong are you? This feeling!"
Nei Li snorted. "As expected, you've reached that realm ahead of me."
I nodded. "During the horde I absorbed a lot of demon spirit essence and used it and all my resources to break through, only barely avoiding death as it seems."
Nie Li nodded before telling them. "He's surpassed legend rank and is one rank ahead, heavenly fate realm."
I ignored their looks and Nie Li gave them the skinny on the ranks after legend until he gave me a sour look saying. "There supposed to be impossible to achieve in tiny world."
I shrugged. "The demon lord is doing his through sacrifice, I guess I went the same way with the demon beast horde. Must be a necessary part of gathering the needed soul force and purifying it, or else just a result of it."
They looked at me weirdly and I turned, grabbed Yang Xin and left saying. "I'll be in town for another day before I head out on my own again."
They were perplexed but I couldn't care less what they thought. I spent the night making god growth rate demon spirits in bulk. When I finished I gave Yang Xin a quickie before giving her the ring that had nearly two hundred thousand god growth rate demon spirits inside it.
I took the map of the city and made an even bigger array with fifty thousand demon spirits in the center and a hundred and fifty thousand on the outside before writing an instruction manual on how to implement it down to the materials to use and the instructions on how to prep them.
When I left the book on the nightstand under the letter of my goodbye and another larger book on every pill I know how to make with the instructions to do so along with every ingredient drawn out in detail and a map of where to find them, I kissed her sleeping forehead and said goodbye in my own way.
As the sun came up, I left Glory city for the last time. I knew deep down that I'd never return and so I gave them a fighting chance at least. On my way out I saw Nie Li leaving as well. When he disappeared into the tree line I sighed. "We'll meet again soon I'm sure."
I took out the map and noticed Duan Jian was unusually quiet. "What is it?"
He asked solemnly. "Where are we going?"
I smirked. "To get your revenge before going on an adventure."
He perked up almost instantly and clenched his sword hand. "I am ready master."
I shrugged. "Do not disappoint me then."
I grabbed him and moved to the entrance to the prison world before opening it and blurring inside. Moments later we were before the silver winged family's territory. I waved him on. "Do as you wish, but do not loose."
He pulled out his sword while his wings unfurled and he took flight. I watched him attack the main house and challenge the silver winged patriarch to a duel to the death.
They both flew above and fought like demons but the patriarch has yet to unleash his silver winged bloodline technique so there was little hope for him. Duan Jian used him like a wet stone until he broke through to legend rank demon spiritualist and struck him down.
The blow wasn't immediately fatal but the patriarch didn't have long. A sigh broke out from all around as Duan Jian went to deliver the finishing blow. "Why not release the burden in your heart? Do not become him by killing him. He will die regardless now, why not be better than he is?"
Duan Jian stilled before lowering his blade and returning to my side. He was perplexed for a time before sighing. "Lets go master, I've had my revenge."
I patted his shoulder. "That you have, but something you'll learn about me is-"
I sent out a blast of green flame to the downed patriarch. As he burned I continued. "I leave no chances to be stabbed in the back."
I waved a hand and all those still alive that served the patriarch willingly, including his daughter and the elders, burst into flames. Duan Jian frowned. "What of the innocent still left alive?"
I sighed. "Nie Li has told the city lord about this place and how to get in. The city lord in turn is planning to come here soon and take these people to glory city. The other families here will watch over them until then I'm sure."
A man with a flame on his robe appeared. "My patriarch has said as much. Can you really take us out of this place?"
I chuckled. "I can but I won't. No, the city lord will come and take all those who wish to leave out."
I heard a sad sigh as we left. "Why?"
I snorted. "Because it was my will, my way. I've no need to explain myself even to you old man. You may be beyond the workings of mortals, but your sympathy for them stops you from seeing further. Creation and destruction, life and death, all are apart of the cycle."
I felt my little tree grow a bit in response to my last few words. This reality held meaning to them and as such they were a mantra of sorts. We left as I finished my parting words to the old man.
When we we out of the prison realm, Ye Yan found us and landed on my shoulder. He gave me the directions I sought before I told him to relay the information to Nie Li and where to find him.
I took off in the air with Duan Jian as we flew to the entrance of the nether realm several leagues away in the side of a mountain. There was a barrier there I simply brushed passed as Duan Jian followed me in.
Dark elves hiding in the dark watched us with weary eyes as I released my aura. They fled along with the other creatures of the deep while we entered the nether realm. When we entered the nether city, I lead Duan Jian to an in where I traded some pills I'd gotten from Yang Xin again for two rooms for two months.
I then told Duan Jian to stay inside and practice before leaving him a ring full of food and water. He had plenty of resources and as such needed little else. I then went on the hunt, killing my way through the dark guild members as I found them. For over a month and a half I hunted and killed them until all that remained were the two vice leaders and a handful of subordinates.
I'd yet to run into Ye Han, the city lord's adopted son and attempted murderer. The last dark guild member I tortured to death said he'd snuck away. I knew where he'd be once I learned of the phantom family amassing troops. I took a stroll to their camp and saw Nie Li leaving with two legend rank humans.
I smiled and waited until he was gone before massacring everyone, starting with the legend ranks and working my way downwards. When the last of them died after telling me where their family base was, I gathered their belongings before burning the bodies to ash with my green flames and moving on.
I finally found the little gold rank prick that was selling glory city's secrets amongst the family's yard. I sealed off the space as three Demi god rank experts came out, those that had reached the peak of legend rank and understood a law to an extent.
I didn't argue with them or even speak, I killed them each in two moves before slaughtering the compound. No one that knew about Glory city would be left alive. Ye Han received a torturous death for his betrayal and his screams echoed throughout the empty compound.
I continued my hunt for the dark guild where I left off. Troublesome cockroaches the lot of them. Soon enough only Gui Sha and Long Sha remained of the entire guild with the exception of the demon lord.
When the last of their subordinates gave them up under an excruciatingly painful torture, I relieved him of his head before heading to their last secret compound.
Long Sha and Gui Sha we're both still severely injured when I caught up to them so I tortured Long Sha a bit until Gui Sha gave up the demon lord's location. Long Sha's last words were. "You cannot hope to beat-"
The snap of his neck silenced him before I killed Gui Sha as well. I went below their hideout, deep underground in a cave system where I found the demon lord in meditation. Smiling, I kicked his door in and woke him up. He spit out a mouth full of blood from the backlash and being startled awake.
Growling he asked. "Who are you to disturb-"
All I could hear after that was his chocking and struggling to pull the swords I buried in his heart and throat out. With a concentrated twist and a blade slash all that remained of him was the broken shell he once inhabited.
I'd infused the laws of death and decay into those cuts so they'd penetrate the supreme body he inhabited. I stored the body away and emptied the last of his treasures into my ring.
The room full of dead bodies and fetuses he'd sacrificed to attempt making a fate soul could stay. I left the compound intact and otherwise unharmed except for the dead and made my way back to the inn, mission accomplished.
When I arrived I was happy to see Duan Jian had progressed significantly. He was now a pentacle demigod rank expert with the laws of fire under his belt. When he stood up proudly I patted his head saying. "You've done new proud, now I've a mission for you. Go back to glory city and tell them I killed the dark guild and the traitor Ye Han along with the phantom family. They've no need to worry now."
He smiled before bowing and disappearing. I grabbed a shower which in this place was little better than a whores bath, before taking a nap. Sometimes meditation just doesn't cut it.